Brian Hurley: Refereeing inconsistencies frustrate with players sacrificing so much

Brian Hurley says that massive sacrifices are being made by modern day inter-county GAA players and called for more help for referees so that they can get more decisions correct.

Hurley kicked four points from play, before seeing his last kick of the game shot tipped onto the post by goalkeeper David O'Hanlon, as the Rebels lost out to Dublin in an entertaining Allianz League Division 2 clash at Páirc Uí Chaoimh on Sunday.

There were plenty of talking points to emerge from the game, with the return of Jack McCaffrey after nearly three years out, as well as Hurley's late effort staying out with the help of the upright, amongst them.

On the way out of the ground afterwards though one topic could be heard being discussed by supporters in both red hats and blue, and that was the sendings off.

First a relatively innocuous looking tug of the jersey saw Ian Maguire receive a second yellow. A foul, absolutely, but the anger in the stand suggested that followers of Cork didn't feel it warranted a second yellow.

That was followed by the sending off of Lee Gannon for Dublin as the defender smashed into Sean Powter, after clearing the ball, and was also shown a second yellow.

Maguire has since spoken to the media explaining that it was his error and that he had committed a third serious foul, but it doesn't take away from the sense that we might be seeing far more red cards in the summer if the rules are applied to the letter of the law.

These were sentiments echoed by Hurley.

"You said it was soft, I'd say it was soft as well, to be honest," he said speaking at an Allianz event.

"The two of them were [soft]. At the end of the day, whatever the referee decides, we still had chances after that and before that. We cost ourselves in the result,